AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes

I love a sunburnt country / A land of sweeping plains / Of ragged mountain ranges / Of droughts and flooding rains / I love her far horizons / I love her jewel-sea / Her beauty and her terror / The wide brown land for me / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

To finalise their studies of media, I asked my Year 9 students to create a video, introducing new students to the elective.
This is part of one draft for a video script, representing how confident the students are now to meet new challenges.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

This grave for William Parkinson Wilson is at Mornington Cemetery on the Mornington Peninsula.
Born in 1826? in Northamptonshire, England, he was founding professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Belfast in 1854.
But a year later, he was one of the first 4 professors appointed to the University of Melbourne.
He may have been a Professor of Mathematics, but his special interest was astronomy.
In 1871, he led an expedition to north Queensland to observe an eclipse of the sun.
He established an observatory at Mornington.
In 1874, he participated in observations of the transit of Venus.
Two days later, on 11th December 1874, he died of cerebral haemorrhage.
William had been suffering ill health for some time, but perhaps the excitement of this event contributed to his death.
He was just 49.
William was a bachelor, lived in university apartments and later maintained a house in Mornington named Wolfdene.
(According to one source, it was formerly Mornington Hotel for some 10 years after 1858 and then became a school?)
As Mornington was only accessible by water or horse back at the time, it is presumed he only stayed there when the university was in recess.
But he took care of the education of his two nephews.
This partly explains why his nephew's name appears with him on his headstone.
More information on the varied career of this academic is HERE!

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I was struck by the 3 crosses on this headstone for the Harris family at Mornington Cemetery on the Mornington Peninsula.
Not till I researched Joseph Harris on Trove did I realise what a notable pioneer he was.
Born in 1833, Bristol, England, he trained in his father's nursery.
He left England on the Morning Star in 1856, but initially tried his luck (unsuccessfully) on the Korong gold diggings near Wedderburn, a rural town 214km north of Melbourne.
(Today, Wedderburn has a Gold and Heritage Festival held round the end of February to beginning of March. Wedderburn, part of the 'Golden Triangle', was once one of Victoria's richest goldmining towns. Many large nuggets have been unearthed here in the past and – for some – continue to be discovered today.)
In 1862, he set up his own seed shop and made it a successful venture for 23 years.
A Liberal, he represented the electorate of South Yarra for some years but never accepted a government portfolio, though it was offered to him.
He was also Government nominee of the Council of Agricultural Education.
His specialty was tropic vegetation, and to study this, he travelled widely in the north of Australia.
He also made several voyages to the Pacific Islands.
For 30 years he was horticultural editor of The Australasian.(The Australasian was a weekly tabloid newspaper from 1864 until 1941, but after 1941 adopted a magazine style and became known as The Australasian Post.
When it closed in 2002, it was the longest running picture magazine in Australia.)
He sat on many boards,
(including the Victoria Coffee Palace in Collins Street, Melbourne where he was chairman of directors)
but the strangest one involves the church.
A member of the Church of England, yet he was on the board of the South Yarra Presbyterian Church for 20 years.
In 1932, the Joseph Harris Boy Scout Park at Mount Martha (near Mornington) was opened.
The 80 acres of land was donated by Mrs H.G. Pitt (Rosa? using initials of her husband?) in memory of her father Joseph Harris.
( Not sure just who this daughter is.
The former Trove article says:Two daughters -Mrs Rosa Pitt and Mrs T.P.Long, - survive him and one son - Mr F. Harriss. The third daughter Mrs F. Vanderkelen was the wife of Mr.
Vanderkelon who for several years was the Belgian consul in Melbourne.

Joseph Harris has one more unusual claim to fame.
He imported a prefabricated Japanese Tea House to his holiday property at Marina, Mornington.
(The original Marina was destroyed by fire in 1915, but re-built as a gabled bungalow. Even though the property was subdivided after Rosa's death, the re-built house has been retained.
More details HERE and HERE!)
It is now heritage listed, the only known example in Victoria in a garden setting.
The tea houses are also rare in Japan. Ref: HERE

Monday, June 18, 2012

An unknown small tree in my garden has a strange shape that curls and bends as it grows.
This particular morning I captured it "mid curl", complete with shadows through the leaves.
The tree does not flower, but gets odd pea-like "buds" and sheds Autumn-toned red leaves in the summer.
This is a Winter view.

Side wall of St Mark's Anglican Church, DromanaConstruction of the Neo-gothic-style St Mark's Anglican Church was commenced in 1892 and the first service was held in the church in April 1893. The church was constructed using rusticated limestone with red brick quoins and features rendered parapets at the gable end. St Mark's is the Mornington Peninsula's third oldest Anglican stone church and is only pre-dated by St John's in Sorrento (1874) and St Andrew's in Rye (1882).
Ref: Australian Heritage

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A simple headstone at Sorrento cemetery on the southern end of the Mornington Peninsula,
but it signifies and leads to so much.

James Bell (founder of the famous Scottish printing house of Bell and Bain in 1831 and one of the oldest printing companies still operating in Scotland) was my father's Grand Father. My father's name isCaptain James Logan-Bell ,
OBE MID, ASC, 1914 to 1922, Royal Horse Artillery, First Cavalry Division, BEF. who
emigrated to Australia in 1924 and enroute met and fell in love with my Mother Ethel Lilian Shelley, private secretary the Caterer to the House of Lords, the De Vere Group of Hotels. They married and settled down in Melbourne and surrounding
districts. I was born in 1935, an only son. Both now lie buried in the picturesque and historic pioneer cemetery in Sorrento, near where our Prime Minister Harold Holt mysteriously drowned at Cheviot beach on 16 December1967. I live with Merlyn my wife and younger Daughter Christina here at Carnegie, an attractive inner Melbourne suburb. Merlyn's family were pioneer miners, the Trembaths from St Just, Cornwall who originally settled in Bendigo at the time of the Victorian Gold Rush. Her Grand Father grew quite wealthy and established a stock broking business, his Grand Son Robert still practises with a family broking firm.
Extract from HERE by James Logan-Bell, born in 1935, an only son.
More from him HERE

In 2007, the Liberal Party awarded this James (Jim) Logan-Bell a certificate of appreciation In recognition of more than ten years continuous service in an executive position
for the Liberal Party in the Federal Electorate of Goldstein
He has been secretary of the Glen Huntly branch of the Liberal Party and Treasurer for the Victorian Snowsports Association.
He is keen on creating programmes representing opportunities for indigenous and low socio-economic communities to enjoy snowsports.
Perhaps the interest in indigenous welfare stemmed from his attendance of Wesley College, South Perth, Western Australia.During the 1960s, the Methodist church had assumed responsibility for the
Mogumber Mission at Moore River and two boys were provided with places as
boarders at the school. Dean Collard and Trevor Holmes were the first Aboriginal
students at Wesley College, some four decades after the opening. Ref: HERE
There is a strong indigenous representation now at Wesley and scholarships are available for this group.
ODD FACTS:
Jim supplied a 1951 sketchbook for the Wesley archives. Is/was he an artist?
Mr Jim Logan-Bell's painting of a view from Prince Charles' Australian school, Timbertop, was presented to Charles and Diana at their wedding. SMH Nov 3, 1985NOTE:
BEF = British Expeditionary Forces
ASC = Army Service Corps - before 1918; RASC after 1918
MID = Military Intelligence Detachment

My Year 9 English students have just completed studying Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
They were required to create character masks for an assessment oral.
One student decided to create a half mask representing Capulet.

Visiting ShakespeareConnecting to his old worldThrough the mask of time

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Downward family - pioneers of settlement on the Mornington Peninsula - feature prominently at Mornington cemetery.
Yet only one seems to reveal some internet detail.
The first mail services to the Western Port side of the Mornington Peninsula did
not commence until 1858. Prior to that mail was delivered by horseback to either
Schnapper Point (Mornington), Dromana, Sorrento and Cape Schank. From
1857 a coach ran from Mooroduc to Sandy Point, bringing mail, but the first
contract to deliver mail to the area began in 1863 when mail was delivered twice
a week by horse back to Hastings from Schnapper Point.
In 1866 this contract, awarded to Alfred Downward, was extended to Balnarring
as well.
- extract from Hastings District Heritage Study
Alfred Downward was a long standing member of Federal parliament.

Alfred lived at the large property of Redwood - so named because of the many redwood gums - Mornington.
Initially, he worked on his father's sheep farm at Balnarring. From 1874 he ran sheep on his own selection at Tubbar Rubba (also known as Tubbarubba, just outside Dromana, where a gold bearing reef was discovered in the 1870's but shafts were first struck 4 years earlier) and took a great interest in land settlement and development of the Peninsula.
In September 1895, Alfred was one of 13 shareholders forming the Tubbarubba Gold Mining Company.
(No significant finds were ever recorded!)
Member of Flinders and Kangerong shire council for 25 years, president 1890-1892; also councillor and president of Mornington shire.
These 3 shires covered the peninsula.
He was MLA for Mornington, representing the Country Party, from 1894 till 1929, just before his death in 1930.
In that time he held a range of impressive portfolios.
More details HERE!

Trove records a number of newspaper comments.
Alfred was the oldest member of the Legislative Assembly when he retired.
He was one of the largest landowners on the peninsula and was a leading sheep breeder.
His son Herbert (1880-1973) represented the Country Party for Mornington after Alfred's retirement.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Little solar powered model created by Grade 6 students at my school.
(And it works!)
A number of creations are on display at the front of my school, but I only discovered them a few days ago!
I was amazed what the primary students can do!
The school is encouraging younger students to explore new ideas.

Lady Gemma

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About Me ~ Blogging since 4.07.07

Over 50! And Motoring!

T.S.Eliot's poetry has never failed to intoxicate me! In fact, his sunlight on a broken column, his midnights and lamp posts, his female rhythms mouthing Michelangelo pleasantries are all bound up in the "overwhelming question" of our real biorhythms and souls! ~
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
~~~~Ray Bradbury
~~~~Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.~~~Anton Chekhov ~~~
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
~Angela Monet

AUSTRALIAN BLOGGER

Footfalls echo in the memory,
Down the passage which we did not take,
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.- T.S.Eliot ..............................
My page was too white/My ink was too thin/The day wouldn’t write/What the night pencilled in
-'The Book of Longing'
Leonard Cohen.....................
Creative discord of fractured harmonies! Between the Question and the Answer is
A Hush...
A Whisper...
A Dreaming... The grit of raw desert lands whirls on the winds in erotic rhythms - sometimes.
- Greyscale

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IN MEMORY OF SPADOMAN Monday 2.12.13 Miss his smiling view of the world in all its jagged pieces

I'm a Renaisance Man. I've been a lot of places and done a lot of things. I tell stories, sometimes, when I'm in the mood or especially when someone asks me. I don't want to believe I have an ego problem, but I admit I have an ego. All I really desire is when you hear that I have passed, I hope you can say, "Too bad, he was a nice guy."

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~ The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.~ Tagore